Al-Qaida US Hostage Pleads to Jewish Groups

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Jewish U.S. aid worker held by al-Qaida in Pakistan for more than a year appealed to Jewish groups in the United States to pressure President Barack Obama to help secure his release, a group that monitors Islamist websites said on Thursday.

In the second video of him to be released within two days, Warren Weinstein said he was being treated well and taking all his medications, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said.

Weinstein asked his wife to contact Jewish communities in the United States to pressure the Obama administration.

"Please also, I beg you, work with the American Jewish communities in order to work with the Israeli government and [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu in order to have the Israelis work with the mujahideen, accept their demands, and obtain my freedom," he said in the video, according to SITE.

In a video released on Wednesday, Weinstein appealed to Netanyahu to help meet the demands of his captors.

Weinstein, who was kidnapped in Lahore in August 2011, pleaded with Obama in a similar recording in May, saying his life was in the president's hands.

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in December the group was responsible for Weinstein's abduction and demanded the release of all those in U.S. detention for ties to his Islamist militant group or the Taliban.

He also demanded an end to air strikes by the United States and its allies against militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Gaza.